Most wireless communication systems include a central node, such as a cellular base-station, a WiFi access point, and/or an Internet of Things gateway communicating to a multitude of clients. In such configurations, it is desirable to increase the coverage area or range, and to remove blind spots. The straightforward approach is to increase transmit power. Simply increasing transmit power has several drawbacks. First, and foremost, transmission at high power levels increases the amount of interference to nearby nodes that may be reusing the same spectrum at the same time. In addition, for resource-limited clients such as mobile phones, increasing the power level will have side effects such as battery drainage and health implications for their users.
There is an ongoing need to enable transmitters to transmit at lower power levels.